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{ How I Learned to Love my Body…for Real this Time }

Like many women, I have struggled with loving and appreciating my body…until now. I have finally come to a place where I learned to love my body because I realized that loving my body as it is right now doesn’t mean that I can’t also be working on improving it and making it stronger. Learning to grow my body love has been the foundation work that I was missing to start seeing a significant change in my fitness goals.

There are many dimensions of self-love. You can love physical aspects of your body or your looks, and there’s love for your personality traits and qualities. Either way, self-love should be multidimensional and you should constantly be working on loving every aspect of yourself, inside and out.

If you struggle with self-love in any area in your life, there are ways to start building that positive and loving relationship with yourself. And it isn’t as hard as we make it out to be!

{ What is self-love }

When I talk about self-love and loving every part of yourself, I don’t mean it in an egotistical way where you are overconfident and a pompous a*s where you think you’re da bomb when you’re really just .. not.

I mean true self-love. You recognize your value, your qualities and your strengths. You appreciate and respect your body and your self. But you’re also aware of your weaknesses. You love and respect yourself enough to want to work on weaker areas.

To me, that is true self-love. Being able to be kind and loving with yourself while also being able to push yourself to continuously improve as an individual.

The dimension I want to focus on in this blogpost is the physical self-love because there is a close link between the physical, the mental and the spiritual components of your self. When you unlock the key to body love, the rest becomes easier.

More specifically, for you to feel balanced and happy, your physical, mental and spiritual well-being have to be in harmony. Focusing on one area of self-love will affect the others. And sometimes, working on something more ‘tangible’ like working on your physical appearance is easier than working on finding your purpose (which is related to the ‘soul’ dimension).

So if you’re struggling with self-confidence and self-love in the mental/spiritual dimension (for example, you don’t feel like you’re good enough for a promotion at work) then maybe you can start building your body self-love which will then have a positive impact on the other areas.

I know that I personally struggle a lot with loving my body because after gaining 30 lbs, I haven’t looked at my body the same. Even though I’ve been on a wellness and fitness journey for the last 2-3 years, it’s only been in the last year that I’ve noticed a significant difference in how I feel.

But it’s only been since the beginning of the year that I’m focusing on truly loving and embracing my body. And it’s not only because I’ve lost over 20 lbs and gained muscle mass. It’s mainly because of the way I’m appreciating my body.

Self-love can be challenging especially when we have an inner voice always questioning and doubting everything that we do. But there are small steps that you can take on a daily basis to grow your love for yourself because guess what? You deserve it. You’re amazing as you are and you might not look the exact way that you want to, but you’re still perfect as you are, because YOU are defined by your experiences, your character, your actions, and not by how you look.

That’s just the outer shell that everyone else gets to see. The true you lies within you.

{ Body Love Tip # 1 | Positive self-talk }

Do you look at yourself in the mirror every day? What do you tell yourself when you do?

Does it go something like this: “Ugh, look at those arms, they’re so BIG. And that tummy roll, GOD that’s ugly. Those thighs?! Why are they rubbing so much?? And let’s not even get started on my legs…”.

I think we’ve all been there at one point or another.

And it has to stop. NOW.

Imagine yourself as a 3 year old little girl. Would you tell her that she’s ugly and that her arms are fat and that she’s gross because she has a bit of tummy flab? I doubt it.

So why the F*CK are we allowing ourselves to have such demeaning and disrespectful self-talk?!

I’m still guilty of this and I still have to consciously counteract the negative self-talk. But since I was able to recognize that I’m really unkind with myself, it’s been a daily exercise to remind myself to have more positive self-talk.

I try to catch myself when I’m criticizing something about my body, and I try to counter that with something that I love about my body.

{ Body Love Tip # 3 | Take care of your body }

When you love something, how do you treat it? With love and kindness, right? You try to take care of it, be gentle with it…?

Well, let’s do the same with our bodies.

One of the most basic ways that I learned to show my body love is how I took care of it. And it’s as basic as: do you put cream on your body? Do you exercise? Do you drink enough water? Do you eat well?

Show your body some love every day by taking care of it as best as you can with what you feed it, how you use it and by pampering it once in a while.

Treat your body like a temple. Treat it the right way and you will feel healthier and more confident because you are putting YOU first. YOU are taking care of the body that is going to carry you through life!

I know it sounds dramatic but it really is as simple as that.

Taking care of your body is the most basic way you can show yourself self-love because you are optimizing its functioning and this WILL impact your emotional and spiritual well-being.

Do you think you’ll be in a good mood or feel motivated to do much if you feel tired and sluggish? Doubtful!

{ Self-Love lesson }

Loving and accepting your body as it is, right now, doesn’t mean that you can’t be working towards a particular goal.

Create a positive and loving environment for yourself to grow and achieve your goals by first learning how to love and appreciate your body. The rest will follow.

And just because you love your body as it is in the present moment doesn’t mean you have given up on your goals. It just means that you are not beating yourself down in the process.

Join the self-love tribe and share ONE thing you love about your body! You can share it in the comments below or on social media, using the #YouLovingYou hashtag! Make sure to tag me as well!

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Comments

Oh wow, this post is EVERYTHING in my life right now!! I’m only *now* starting to understand what self love is… it’s actually something I’ve pushed aside my entire life. I’m one of those people who tends to be very critical of (and way too hard on) herself and I always had negative thoughts about myself, which obviously reflects. It’s only really recently that I’ve changed my mindset a bit. I found a great podcaster who does positive affirmations and it’s helped me so much. Thank you for this post. I love it!! Love all your tips and the way you write and how raw and real you are. Will def be back to read more on a regular basis (finally feels good to be back in the swing of things again!) 🙂 x

Beautiful post! We should definitely practice self-love a lot more and I love how you emphasize that loving yourself as you are is not settling at all. We can be at peace with ourselves, while still trying to improve. So true! Btw, you look GREAT! xx
Viktoriahttp://www.thelifestyle-files.com

i love this post! You are so cute! 🙂 I completely understand the difficulty of looking at yourself in the mirror & loving what you see. I lost about 30 lbs a year and a half ago.. and then put 20 or so back on.. Now I am trying to drop another 30. It is exhausting. lol Thanks for the great tips! <3

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Hi there!

Hi! I’m Seppy and I'm passionate about LIFE and living every day to its fullest. I love to laugh, to bullet journal and I’m a self-proclaimed chocoholic (if it doesn’t have chocolate, it’s not dessert).

I’m here to help you create and live your dream life by giving you a daily dose of inspiration, encouragement and that kick in the butt that you need to #DreamBig and bring your goals to life. Are you ready?

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